


DUST

by StarBucks



Category: Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:44:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2908094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarBucks/pseuds/StarBucks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He fought and failed, now where is he to go? He goes where an old wiseman tells him. He goes and serves. And finds new life therein. This is a continuation of the Dark Knight trilogy after TDKR.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flight

**Author's Note:**

> More chapters to come. Feedback is the lifeblood of stories, and is how this story will continue to grow. Thank you for reading, if you can, please leave a review. Chow.

It settles around him. Lifeless dead bits of ash and rock. Shimmering in the evening light, tumbling down to meet his mask and feather over his eyes.

The marble hard and unyielding beneath him is a reminder of the riches of the elite he fought so hard to destroy. It is a solid pain beneath him.

Burning. Burning, tearing through his abdomen as breath sought to escape him.

He remembered her face as she left the building, her soft hands as she caressed his cheek, now a fantom touch he can never feel.

Then he remembered fighting, and a blast that threw his body back many yards. Then came the burning. Agony. If he knew anything, it was pain, but this was unbearable. Almost. Knowing he had to push through it, he stood. And he ran. Ran to where he knew She would be. She was there. But there was a knife of jagged metal protruding from her. She was not alive.

He had never cried before. He had no reason to now, and yet the tears came flowing silently down his face and pooled on her lovely silk shirt, and slid down her brown locks. His hands cradled her face, and touched her features in vain attempt to remember every detail. He knew he could not.

His momentary weakness was quelled by the sound of footsteps running at him from the tunnel entrance. Gunshots were fired as he used any remaining strength to sprint from the dark highway under pass into the barely brighter light into the torn streets of Gotham. Several of the projectiles cut deeply into him, and slowed him, but never stopped him.

Bane ran out of fear that day, a thing he hadn't done since, and never did again. He found that the streets of the under belly of the city were not as terrible as he thought, sustainable, yet miserable. He struggled on. Years would go by, and the famous Masked Man would cower in the shadows of his defeat as well as the shadows of alleyways and poverty.


	2. I

It flies around the arid room, spinning wildly as punches ricochet off the heavy sack in front of her. The rhythmic thump of knuckles meeting leather was only broken by her harsh breathing and distant music blaring from her headphones. Her bare feet were slick on the solid wood floor, sliding ever so slightly in time with her solid attacks.

°°°°°

She slips silently through the room, not a sound does she make. Making sure of her security, she tugs the door open and inch further with her foot, praying it won't creak. Soft breathing intrudes her workspace as she quickly gathers the papers she came for. Intel, one might say, but to Selina Kyle, she would rather it be called something more befitting to her purposes, such as... leverage. The papers are slid into a small plastic storage container and she slips out once again of the politician's room.

A soft purring tunes her attention to her next destination as a sleek car pulls up beside her, interrupting her brisk walk down the lane. A door opens from her side as if on its own, and she glides into the front seat.

"You know I don't like to get involved in your dirty work."

"Then you didn't have to pick me up," she replied curtly.

Bruce gave her a look as they sped down the highway to their hideaway.

"I wasn't going to let you walk that far, especially in that dress," he offhandedly gestured to her.

"That's touching. Though, I would feel worse for the poor soul that would try putting his hands on me."

She received a dry chuckle in response, reaffirming her dark mood as she sunk deeper into the heated leather seats.

####

As obnoxious as the ride back was, she wasn't about to let her boyfriends nosey behavior ruin her night. So, in short, that was why she was up at three in the morning punching the developing crap out a poor bag. It already looked like it had seen better days. "My 'dirty work'. Pfft. Like he knows the crap I go through just to keep people quiet."

"Still mad about earlier, I take it."

"Nope. Not talking to you right now."

"Aw, come on."

"If you didn't want me to get involved with shadey people, then maybe we should have just left Gotham entirely when we had the chance."

His silence stretched out before them as he grasped for a good response.

"Alright. Okay. That's fair. You're right. I just thought-"

"Thought what? That you had unfinished work here? Do you realize that you being in this city is only making things worse? Every time you win, something, someone worse than last time rears their ugly head and you feel obligated to... I don't know, 'free the people'. If they thought their was somewhere better, then they'd get the hell out of Dodge! There is nothing keeping them chained here."

"Its my obligations that make me who I am. Not just another figurehead. Another fad. I can still help Selina. I can always do more."

"Then help them. But do it on your own time, not mine. That time is precious. Don't take that from me."

She waited for him to speak something, encouragement, anything, but hearing none she turned away from him and increased her music volume, queuing him to leave.

He couldn't shake the feeling though, that something was changing. He could feel it. Whatever it was, it was coming soon. A new time of peace? A new enemy? A new life was what he needed more than anything. A new identity. He didn't want to go back as himself. Yes, it was time for a change.

His walk down the hallway and into the chill Autumn air was short, they hadn't much to live on, trying to play keep away from people that knew them, which was almost everyone. It meant meagre living arrangements and a lot of down time inside.

While walking, he briefly considered that, while a person might relieve stress by taking a stroll in the colder weather, he didn't like the cold weather too much himself. It male him feel vulnerable. And, well, cold.

He made a mental checklist of things to be done before they left the town for good. He knew they had to. They'd stayed far too long already, and the time was nigh for the change he was feeling. Luscious needed a call before they left, and he'd already let Alfred know they were well, and not to mention alive. His old friend understood subtlety all too well, so he was content to leave him with that brief memory of a small countryside café.

And Blake? Maybe it wasn't the time. He already had his hands full with cleaning up the city after its last run in with someone that thought they would blow up the city. The last thing he needed was another charity case.

The change though. It was almost like the deep seated feeling n your bones when the storm begins to roll in. A feeling of insatiable adventure and ambition. Change was something Bruce Wayne welcomed, and come it did.

It swirled around in the snow, making the pure crystals dirty with dark patches. Dust in the snow, dirt on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for peeking into my little pages. Any feedback you give I will scrutinize to the utmost and get back to you on as soon as humanly possible. I'm shooting for weekly updates, so keep fingers crossed. If anyone is interested, the beta position for this story is currently open. It helps the process, and also the spelling errors :) Again, thank you for reading. -L


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